Christmas is nearly here, and there is so much to do – preparing for visiting family, finding gifts for the children, serving the church, writes Linda Kavelin-Popov.
Coconut trees are often called the ‘Tree of Life’ in the Cook Islands and other Pacific islands because every part of the tree is useful. But too many coconut trees can be a problem.
“The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether you are on a section gang, a football field, in an army or in an office.” These were the reflective words of Dwight Delano Eisenhower as he pondered his time in office as the United States’ 34th president.
My views about how I regard the performance of our parliament as a complete shambles are well documented (CIs News 13.10.14) so, as parliament is shortly expected to be convened, I would like to make some suggestions and comments on how we might take this opportunity of a new parliament to finally try and recognise one particular problem and do something intelligent about it.
Nationalism is fast becoming a dirty word.
When did we start measuring our people by dollars and cents?
It’s always telling when people who move here to live or to work start a sentence with, “back in New Zealand” (or wherever they may be from), “we do it this way”.
When Irishman Thomas Bracken wrote the New Zealand National Anthem in 1870, he included the lines, “Guard Pacific’s triple star”, from the shafts of strife and war.
Political commentator John Scott says he is “amazed” at some of the material the court is being asked to accept during the electoral petitions proceedings now underway. He discusses some of the reasons for his discomfort in this opinion piece for CINews. The long-time Rarotonga resident has expert knowledge of the role of parliament in Cook Islands politics.
It is so true that to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.
In 1858, the Kingdom of Rarotonga or Mātāmuatanga Rarotonga, was the name given to an independent kingdom established in what we now know as the Cook Islands.
The clash between our development as a tourist destination and preserving our culture, sacred places and identity have come to the fore this week, with young eco-warrior Liam Kokaua mobilising people to stop a planned development at Avana Point.
If people from other countries were able to check out our prison on the island, how would they then judge our society and what would they say about these invisible members of our population?
I watched and listened to the Finance minister, Mark Brown, on CITV News on Thursday once again doing what he does best - re-arranging the goal posts to align with his preconceived notions on how our world should operate.
Columnist Thomas Wynne comments on an eye-opening conference he attended in Australia last week. Wynne’s regular column, which usually appears on Saturday, will instead be printed in Monday’s CINews.
I visited an old papa this week, who lived in a house that can only be described as fit to be condemned.
As each party summons its troops and gathers over the next few days, vying for the opportunity to govern the country, the question we may need to ask ourselves is, have the Cook Islands people won this election?
“Be careful what you ask for, because when you pray for rain, you have to deal with the mud as well...”
I read a couple of letters in last Saturday's CIs News extolling all the so-called achievements that have been made under the present CIP government and I asked myself at what cost, not only in dollar terms but, to democracy?
Someone once said things come in threes. Three would have been enough, but each day our small communities have been hit by the loss of yet another loved one. Another young one gone too soon, or another Mama or Papa taken as the sun sets on their lives.
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter, and voting is the foundation stone for political action.
On the front page of the CINews on May 15 there was an article by Alfred Cook, manager of World Wide Fund for Nature’s Western and Central Pacific.
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